‘All luxury litigations’: SC declines to hear PIL on packaged drinking water standards

Antimony, a metalloid, and DEHP, a synthetic chemical, are added to plastic products to increase the product’s utility, durability and flexibility.

Appearing for the petitioner, Sarang Vaman Yadvadkar, an architect, Senior Advocate Anita Shenoy said the Indian standards need revision since the standards set by the country’s authorities allow a higher amount of antimony and DEHP to be present in drinking water, as compared to the safe permissible amount set by the World Health Organization and in other countries.

“Where is the drinking water in this country, madam? People do not have drinking water; the quality of bottled water will come later on,” CJI Kant said.

Pointing out that people in rural areas mostly depend on groundwater, he added, “This is an urban-centric approach; the people in rural areas drink groundwater, and nothing happens to them.”

CJI Kant said the petitioner should have focused on the unavailability of drinking water and added, “Water bottle should have this content, that content. These are all luxury litigations.” He also wondered if, given the situation in India, it would be possible to implement US or European standards in the country.

“Do you think we will be able to introduce the USA, Japan, EU guidelines? Let us face the ground realities of the country. Nobody takes up the cause of the poor; all this is rich and urbanised phobia,” he added.

Shenoy pointed out that it is not a case of drinking water per se, but bottled water. “It is what travels from plastic into the water,” she said, but the bench was not impressed.

CJI Kant said, “Ask him to travel some of the parts. When Mahatma Gandhi came from South Africa, he opted to travel different rural areas of the country, only to understand the plight of the people. He is a big architect, tell him to please travel some parts of India where people are still craving for receiving the drinking water and they get only a fixed quantity. Then he will understand what is India.”

What the PIL said

The plea filed through Advocate Srishti Agnihotri said that the presence of antimony and DEHP can prove to be harmful to human health and life if found beyond a certain limit. “Both the elements are found to have impacts on cardiovascular health such as arrhythmias and bradycardia, as well as respiratory irritation, gastrointestinal distress. Chronic exposure has been linked to liver and kidney dysfunction, changes in blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and histopathological damage to multiple organs,” it said.

“The ill-effects of DEHP have been documented in scientific literature where it has been shown that DEHP—that is commonly found in plastic products—are the primary reason for increased cardiovascular diseases,” it further said, adding that India had the highest prevalence of DEHP-linked cardiovascular deaths “accounting for almost a third of the global mortalities”.

The plea further said that the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and FSSAI have prescribed standards for drinking water bottles and drinking water, respectively. “These standards have been modified over the course of years and it is the submission of the Petitioner herein that the latest standards set by both the authorities are not only not in consonance with each other but also are substantially weaker/ lower than the standards set by World Health Organization and in other countries,” it added.

“This essentially implies that the higher quantity of antimony and DEHP are allowed in the water and drinking water bottles in India…There is nothing to suggest that people in India have higher tolerance limit so far as DEHP and antimony are concerned,” the plea said.